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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Speed of sound in methane under conditions of planetary interiors

Thomas G. White1,2,*, Hannah Poole2, Emma E. McBride3,4, Matthew Oliver1,2,5, Adrien Descamps3,4, Luke B. Fletcher3, W. Alex Angermeier1, Cameron H. Allen1, Karen Appel6 et al.

Florian P. Condamine7, Chandra B. Curry3,8, Francesco Dallari9, Stefan Funk10, Eric Galtier3, Eliseo J. Gamboa3, Maxence Gauthier3, Peter Graham11, Sebastian Goede6, Daniel Haden1, Jongjin B. Kim3, Hae Ja Lee3, Benjamin K. Ofori-Okai3, Scott Richardson11, Alex Rigby2, Christopher Schoenwaelder3, Peihao Sun9, Bastian L. Witte3, Thomas Tschentscher6, Ulf Zastrau6, Bob Nagler3, J. B. Hastings3, Giulio Monaco9, Dirk O. Gericke12, Siegfried H. Glenzer3, and Gianluca Gregori2

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
  • 3SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
  • 4School of Mathematics and Physics, Queens University Belfast, University Road, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom
  • 5Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, Chilton OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
  • 6European XFEL, Holzkoppel 4, 22869 Schenefeld, Germany
  • 7Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC, ELI Beamlines Facility, Za Radnici 835, CZ-252 41 Dolni Brezany, Czech Republic
  • 8Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 1H9
  • 9Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via F. Marzolo, 8, I-35131 Padova, Italy
  • 10Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Nikolaus-Fiebiger-Str. 2, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
  • 11AWE, Aldermaston, Reading, Berkshire RG7 4PR, United Kingdom
  • 12Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom

  • *Corresponding author: tgwhite@unr.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L022029 – Published 2 May, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L022029

Abstract

We present direct observations of acoustic waves in warm dense matter. We analyze wave-number- and energy-resolved x-ray spectra taken from warm dense methane created by laser heating a cryogenic liquid jet. X-ray diffraction and inelastic free-electron scattering yield sample conditions of 0.3±0.1 eV and 0.8±0.1 g/cm−3, corresponding to a pressure of ∼13 GPa. Inelastic x-ray scattering was used to observe the collective oscillations of the ions. With a highly improved energy resolution of ∼50 meV, we could clearly distinguish the Brillouin peaks from the quasielastic Rayleigh feature. Data at different wave numbers were utilized to derive a sound speed of 5.9±0.5 km/s, marking a high-temperature data point for methane and demonstrating consistency with Birch's law in this parameter regime.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L022029– Published 2 May, 2024
  • Received 17 November 2023
  • Revised 13 February 2024
  • Accepted 1 April 2024
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